We were so happy to get a surprise visit from my sister yesterday since we've recently moved 70ish miles away from her. I found out about her surprise visit via text at the very end of my school day just as I had become trapped by a lurking parent at school. Don't get me wrong. I love talking to parents about their kids, just not the lurky kind at 3:30 on a Friday after my car line duty is complete and my kids are bouncing all over my classroom and my phone is ringing, dinging, and beeping (my people know what time school lets out...and by my people, I mean my husband and sister this day.)
Anyway...back to my point. So, I escape (a little rudely) to meet my sister who is waiting for me in my driveway. As we approach, the kids are screaming out of the windows, "Aunt Britt, Aunt Britt!" We enter the itty bitty rent house, which was just fine before we left for school, but suddenly when a visitor enters I see it. All of it! The battleship game pieces on the floor, the 2 trash bags for Goodwill in the hallway (which I cannot find in my new town...Where do you people bring your old clothes?) , the tiny patches of Pepper's fur that must be swept daily, the laundry I failed to conquer the night before, and on...and on...and on. The house typically does look at its worse on Fridays since major cleaning happens on Saturdays (as I sit here blogging on this Saturday morning).
Anyway, that wasn't the point either....back to it. So, we take Aunt Britt to see our new house with its nice, new brick and driveway. Usually we just ride along in the car to the new house and back. Everything is fine. But, now, with my sister in the car, the noise is deafening all of a sudden. And I realize, this may all seem exhausting and overwhelming to my sister who was lucky enough to sit in the back seat with the crew.
"I feel like I'm in the movie theatre with all of this smacking," she says. Yes, the kids usually get a snack after school, so they took each a crunchy bag of chips in the car. I offered to put on a DVD for her, but she declined, although Cate was up for the 567,432,789,654 showing of "Alvin and the Chipmunks". This perked my ears to the noise in the backseat. Yes. Lots of it. Constantly! How do we live like this? I guess it all just washes into the background usually. This is how it sounded, and most of the talking is 3-yr-old Catie.
"Mom, when am I going to go to Aunt Britt's again?" "I don't know ask Aunt Britt." "Aunt Britt, when are we going to your house again?" "Mom, when I go to Aunt Britt's, just drop me off and I'll walk in. Don't get out of the car. I'll go all by myself""Aunt Britt, when you bring me back to my house just drop me off. I'll walk in all by myself""Mom, tell Abby to stop sucking her thumb!""Abby, stop sucking your thumb. Zac leave her alone.""(Whining) Zac, leave me alone, Mom said!""Mom, you said we could get some candy. Can we go to the candy store?""Later.""But, you said we could. Can we go now?"" Mom, Can we go now....Mom, can we? Mom? Mom? CAN we? Mom, Can we go get some candy?? Mom? ""Yes, later.""Abby stop sucking your THUMB!...MOM!""Waaaaahhh, leave. me. alone. ZAC!""Leave your sister alone, Zac.""Mom, can we go to the store and get some candy?""Mom, we need to go home because I (Catie) have a lot of homework."
Okay. You get the point. I started counting during the silent moments and never got to 4. My sister often reminds me of why she has no kids. To which I tell her as all moms do. "It's different when they are your own."
This exact scenario is going on now as I type this. The pows and bangs of the Wii, the bickering of 2 sisters, my husband rumbling around for his lost ruler, and the dog barking at the door....and I barely hear a thing, but still manage to answer every question, solve every problem, and comfort every boo boo as I go (except for finding the ruler), all while managing to fit in a blog post. Pretty amazing.
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